Page 18 of Leave It On The Field (Grand Slam 3)
“Smart man,” Mason says, nodding at him. “Yeah, what’s up with Sophie? Joe told us a little bit on the way up here. Is someone threatening her?”
“No one in particular,” Joe says, taking a seat. “Just some vague threats on social media. More trash talk than anything else, but it’s making Seb uneasy.”
“It’s making me more than uneasy. It’s pissing me the fuck off. And it’s more than social media. Some guy followed her out of Target a couple weeks ago. She thought he was going to attack her. Turns out he wanted her to get my autograph and send it to him. Everyone knows who she is now. And with the World Series stuff and now this hotel isolation, I can’t be there to protect her. I need someone to have her back. She won’t let me hire a bodyguard because she doesn’t want a stranger following her around, but she said she would be okay with you guys watching her.”
“We’re here for whatever you need,” Mason says. “If you want us to stick close to her for the entire series, we’re on it. No one will get to her.”
“I appreciate that,” I say, hesitating, “but Sophie and I feel a little weird asking you to do this because you’re our friends and we want you to have a good time while you’re here.”
“You don’t know us very well yet,” Butch says, grabbing another handful of pretzels, “but believe me, protecting people is our idea of a good time. It makes us feel all manly and stuff. It’s a done deal. Where is she now?”
“She’s back at our house with my parents.”
“Well if we’re protecting her,” Mason says, “either we need to stay there or she needs to stay at the hotel.”
“She can stay here. I told her to pack.”
Joe holds up his hand. “Seb, I think it might be easier if they stay at your house. Drew will lose his mind if Sophie stays here. No wives or girlfriends. No exceptions.”
“Our house is full. Both of our families are staying there. She needs to stay here.”
“There’s no way Drew will approve it,” Joe says, his face tightening. “He’s already freaking out about these guys staying here.”
“Then we’ll have Dottie approve it. Drew works for her.”
“Who’s Dottie?” Millie asks.
“The team owner,” I say. “She’s awesome and she loves Sophie. In fact, Sophie’s doing some work for her during the series. Technically, Sophie’s a team employee again, so she could stay here under that premise.”
Joe inhales through his teeth. “You’re poking the beast. Drew’s already pissed at you for being late.”
“What’s he going to do? Bench me?” I take a long drink of my beer. “I’ll get Dottie to agree to it. She won’t want anything to happen to Sophie.”
“Okay,” Joe says, the lines on his forehead deepening. “But Sophie’s not staying in your room. Drew already thinks I give you special treatment. I told you he talked to me about that. I don’t want to get fired because you can’t go twenty-four hours without seeing Sophie.”
“She can stay with me,” Raine says. “I have an enormous king bed in my room. Plenty of space. It will be fun. We haven’t had a sleepover since we were in grade school.”
Joe points at her. “You’re not sleeping with Alex either. I know you think you’re sneaky, but I’m watching everyone like a hawk. This isn’t some spring break movie. It’s the World Series. Everyone needs to tighten up.”
“Joe,” Raine says, “it’s cool. I’ll make sure Sophie stays in my room all night. We’re good.”
“Yeah,” Mason says, “if we’re protecting her, Sophie doesn’t need to be roaming the halls at night anyway.”
“No one’s roaming anywhere,” Joe says, pointing around at the group. “But technically, she would be safe here. It’s all team employees.”
“How do you know the call isn’t coming from inside the house?” Millie asks. “Most targeted threats come from someone the person knows.”
“Like I said, most of the stuff is pretty vague,” Joe says, “but there’s one Twitter account that gets way too personal. She knows stuff that only a close friend or family member would know.”
“What’s the username?” Raine asks, pulling out her phone.
“Miamibballbabe,” I say. “Stupid-ass name. Stupid-ass woman.”
“Uh,” Raine says as she starts scrolling through Twitter, “it might not be a woman. If this account is getting personal, they would want to stay as cloaked in mystery as possible. It might be a guy trying to throw people off by putting babe in the username. I’ll check it out.”
“You can’t use any work resources for this,” Millie says, pointing at Raine.
“I know,” Raine says. “I won’t need to. I’m guessing this is an amateur. I can figure out who the user is without bringing in the big guns.”
